President Ebrahim Raisi served on Iran’s ‘death committee,’ which killed thousands of civilians in the early years of the Islamic Republic.
Washington, D.C. — Former secretary of state and CIA director Mike Pompeo lambasted the Biden administration on Thursday for allowing Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi — the “Butcher of Tehran” — to attend the United Nations General Assembly meeting in Manhattan this week.
Speaking candidly during an intimate gathering hosted by the Hudson Institute on Thursday morning, the former Kansas congressman said he’s stunned that the president is still intent on resurrecting the ill-conceived Iran nuclear deal, even as the regime targets him, former national security advisor John Bolton, and countless others for assassination.
There is a “global campaign of putting Americans at risk,” Pompeo said, stressing the absurdity of the endless bid for an accord with the world’s leading state sponsor of terror. The fact that the U.S. is allowing Raisi, a notorious mass murderer, to come to New York to address the U.N. is in keeping with the administration’s desperate approach to appease the regime, he argued.
Raisi served on Iran’s “death committee,” which killed thousands of civilians in the early years of the Islamic Republic under the guise of continuing the revolution. He is alleged to have committed an untold number of crimes against humanity. Under U.S. law, the president is barred from granting entry visas to foreign terrorists or those who otherwise pose a risk to national security.
The Iranian leader used the prominent stage to describe Israel as “an occupying, savage power” that should be replaced through a free referendum among all “Palestinians, Muslims, Christians and Jews” in “all of the Palestinian territory from the mountainous region to the sea.”
Pompeo also discussed his personal involvement in the killing of Qasem Soleimani, the former commander of the Quds Force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps branch dedicated to executing extraterritorial acts of terrorism.
Pompeo said that when the Trump administration came into office, the Obama Middle East strategy was “demonstrably failing,” and he knew it was time for a change. “I was worried that we were losing our deterrence capacity with respect to Iran,” he said, referring to the period in 2019 that involved the shoot-down of an American drone over the strait of Hormuz, and the strike on Saudi oil processing facilities in Abqaiq and Khurais by the Yemenite Houthis, who are proxies of Iran.
Pompeo recalled how he, then-Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley traveled to Mar-a-Lago to encourage President Trump to take out the elusive militant in response to recent Iranian aggression and imminent plans to target Americans in the region. He joked that he didn’t leave behind any documents there. Soleimani’s assassination was an unqualified success in Pompeo’s telling. He said it was in accordance with U.S. and international law and sent a clear message to our allies and foes, restoring faith in America’s resolve to defend her interests. “You don’t get the Abraham Accords without the strike on Soleimani,” he asserted confidently.
Additionally, Pompeo expressed dismay with how some in mainstream media behaved while reporting on the Trump Administration’s approach to Iran. He said he would never forgive the New York Times for divulging the identity — and thus endangering the life — of the man he put in charge of the CIA’s Iran Mission Center.
The ongoing war in Ukraine and the potential for a Chinese invasion of Taiwan were also included in Pompeo’s remarks. He said he would recommend continuing U.S. support for Ukraine while advocating for back-channel negotiations with the Kremlin. With respect to Taiwan, he said the U.S. should recognize Taiwanese sovereignty now that Biden rendered our strategic ambiguity “ambiguous.” He stressed the importance of safeguarding the island from Chinese incursion by highlighting Taiwan’s role in manufacturing semiconductors used worldwide.
Pompeo seems intent on bolstering his foreign-policy credentials in case he decides to jump into the fray for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination after the midterm elections. While never explicitly mentioning his aspirations for the Oval Office, yesterday’s event distinguished him as one of the remaining Republicans committed to keeping America actively engaged in the world.